An Indiana man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s two children in 2010 was executed early Thursday. Jeffrey Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. He was 50 years old.
Weisheit’s execution was the first of three lethal injections scheduled to take place on the same day in the United States. Florida and Alabama were also scheduled to carry out executions on Thursday, making it the second time this year that three individuals would be put to death on the same day.
This execution marks Indiana's first of the year. Florida’s execution of Jesse Guardado, who confessed to fatally stabbing a woman in 2004, would be its 19th this year. Alabama is set to execute Michael Taylor, who was convicted of killing an older couple during a robbery when he was 19. Taylor’s execution would be the state’s third this year.
Weisheit admitted to killing the children, ages 8 and 5, by setting fire to his girlfriend’s house in the Evansville area. His lawyers had sought to delay the execution, arguing for brain scans to support claims of head injuries and mental health issues. They also raised concerns about the pharmacy supplying the lethal drugs, which was facing a disciplinary hearing. Governor Mike Braun declined the requests to reduce the sentence to life in prison or allow the scans.
"These reviews have never resulted in an overturned sentence," Governor Braun stated after the execution. "Today, Weisheit’s sentence has been carried out as ordered by the court." Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita commented that the execution brought "long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty."
The death penalty has faced increased scrutiny following a failed execution in Tennessee in September. However, courts have generally rejected efforts to halt executions since that incident. Florida, under Governor Ron DeSantis, has carried out more than half of the 32 total executions in the U.S. so far this year. Alabama plans to execute Taylor by lethal injection after a judge ruled against his attorneys' objections to the method, which came after a switch from a previously selected nitrogen gas method.